Word of the Week 2004-2005
shibboleth | celerity | Pyrrhic | animus | esplanade | turpitude | subterfuge | fallow | volplane | ruse | pellucid | abstemious | cozen | obsequious | deiphosophist | disseise | roseate | specious | expiate | bijou |whinge | portmanteau | ennui | archetype | impolitic | tortuous | flummox |neophyte | halycon | obviate | cacography | traduce | obdurate | sententious | coeval |palimpsest | thaumaturgy | anneal | neotaric | campestral | demulcent | sesqiupedalian
shibboleth \SHIH-buh-leth\ (noun)
*1.a: a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning b: a widely held belief c: truism, platitude
2. a: a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular group b: a custom or usage regarded as distinguishing one group from others
Example sentence:
"Consider the real issues in this election," Alice urged the voters at the rally, "and resist the political shibboleths of those who would try to sway you with false promises."
celerity \suh-LEHR-uh-tee\ (noun)
1. rapidity of motion or action
Example sentence:
"Sam...answered Wardle's violent ringing of the bell with a degree of celerity which must have appeared marvellous to anybody who didn't know that his eye had been applied to the outside of the keyhole during the whole interview." (from Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers)1. achieved at excessive cost; also : costly to the point of negating or outweighing expected benefits
Example sentence:
Gretchen's unexpected win over the tournament's top seeded player proved a Pyrrhic victory; in the effort, she reinjured her shoulder and was sidelined for months.
1.basic attitude or governing spirit
*2. an usually prejudiced and often spiteful or malevolent ill will 3. an inner masculine part of the femal personality in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung
Example Sentence: Barney's friends say that his deep-seated animus towards the medical profession dates back to when his first wife left him for a doctor.
esplanade \ES-pluh-nahd or ES-pluh-nade\ (noun)
1.a level open stretch of paved or grassy ground; especially one designed for walking or driving along a shore
Example Sentence:
On the Fourth of July, the orchestra performed beside the esplanade, and merrymakers strolled by listening to the music and watching the fireworks that were being fired over the river.
turpitude \TUR-puh-tood or TUR-puh-tyood\ (noun)
1.inherent baseness : depravity, also : a base act
Example Sentence:
After the defendent was found guilty of child abuse, the judge sentenced him and condemned him for his turpitude.
subterfuge \SUB-ter-fyooj\ (noun)
*1.deception by artifice or stratagem in order to conceal, escape, evade
2. a deceptive device or stratagem
Example Sentence: The students employed every kind of subterfuge they knew to keep the substitute teacher from assigning homework.
1.ground that is ploughed and harrowed, but left uncropped for a whole year or more; called also summer fallow, as the season is chosen for the sake of killing the weeds
Example Sentence:
The Johnsons resisted the rotation of crops and stood by their fallows.
*1. to glide in or as if in an airplane
2. a: (of an airplane) to descend graduatlly in controlled flight b: to fly in a glider
Example Sentence:
Effortlessly and gracefully soaring in thermal drafts, then volplaning back to earth, the turkey vulture, derided by some, is envied by me.
1. a trick, stratagem, artifice, 'dodge'
Example Sentence:
Posing as an armored truck driver in order to steal the bank's money was quite a ruse.
pellucid \puh-LOO-sid\ (adjective)
*1. admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion
2. reflecting light evenly from all surfaces
3. easy to understand
Example Sentence:
"Peter and Patsy...swam in the then pellucid and unpolluted Mediterranean." (William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings)
abstemious \ab-STEE-mee-us\ (adjective)
1. marked by restraint, especially in the consumption of food or alcohol; also : reflecting such restraint
Example Sentence:
My 100-year old aunt attributes her longevity to abstemious habits of eating and drinking, and she frowns on the dietary excesses of my cousins and their children.
1. to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery
*2. to gain by artful coaxing or tricky deception
Example Sentence:
With a skill possessed only by a shrewd and determined child, Morgan cozened a second helping of dessert from her guileless grandmother.
obsequious \ub-SEE-kwee-us\ (adjective)
1. marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness
Example Sentence:
The movie star travelled with an entourage of obsequious attendants who indulged her every whim and waited on her hand and foot.
deipnosophist \dipe-NAHS-uh-fist\ (noun)
1. a person skilled in table talk
Example Sentence:
"What this dinner party needs is a deipnosophist who could interject some brilliant dialog to save us from terminal boredom," sighed Leonard.
1. to deprive wrongfully of seisin : dispossess
Example Sentence:
The Magna Carta protected landowners from unjust confiscation of properties, stating that "no freeman shall be...disseised...except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land."
roseate \ROH-zee-ut or ROH-zee-ayt\ (adjective)
1. resembling a rose, especially in color
*2. overyly optimistic : viewed favorably
Example Sentence:
Alicia was making some fairly roseate predicitons about the outcome of the contest, but Ben was trying not to get his hopes up.
specious \SPEE-shuhs\ (adjective)
1. having deceptive attraction or allure
*2. having a false look of truth or genuineness: sophistic
Example Sentence:
"This arguement presents itself under a very specious and seducing form; and it is well calculated to lay hold of the prejudices of those to whom it is addressed." (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers)
1. to extinguish the guilt incurred by
*2. to make amends for
Example Sentence:
Olivia regretted the ruthlessness she had used to increase her family's fortune, so she established a philanthropic organization in hopes of expiating her past misdeeds.
*1. a small dainty usually ornamental piece of delicate workmanship: a jewel
2. something delicate, elegant, or highly prized
Example Sentence:
After years of training, Quinn became an accomplished jewelry designer, and the elaborate bijou she created were much sought after for their elegance and beauty.
1. to complain fretfully : whine
Example Sentence:
"Pat is one of those people who constantly whinge and whine about our political leaders," said Meredith, "but never even bother to vote."
portmanteau \port-MAN-toh\ (noun)
1. a large suitcase
*2. a word or morpheme whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct forms (as "smog" from "smoke" and "fog")
Example Sentence:
When she can't think of the perfect word to express an idea, Denise will often combine two words into a portmanteau.
1. a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction : BOREDOM
Example Sentence:
Faced with yet another Society ball, Miss Edwards could only sigh with ennui, hoping some unexpected event might pop up to add spark to her otherwise tedious round of socializing.
1. The original pattern or model from which copies are made; a prototype
Example Sentence:
As his deadline loomed, Stephen rushed to finish his thesis on the heroic archetype and the part it played it superhero comics.
impolitic \im-PAH-luh-tik\ (adjective)
1. not politic: rash
Example Sentence:
It was highly impolitic of Mayor Washburn to recommend a mayoral pay increase shortly before he ran for re-election
tortuous \TORCH-wuhs or TOR-chuh-wuhs\ (adjective)
*1. marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns: winding
2. a: marked by devious or indirect tactics: crooked, tricky b: circuitous, involved
Example Sentence:
The road over the mountains was long and tortuous , especially when it was coated with snow.
1. confuse
Example Sentence:
"I am thoroughly flummoxed by these incomprehensible directions," growled Thomas, as he studied the airport map in a desperate attempt to find his terminal.
1. a new convert: proselyte
*2. novice
3. beginner
Example Sentence:
Internet neophytes often feel overwhelmed by the sheer size of the Web, but the information superhighway becomes less daunting with experience.
halycon \HAL-see-on\ (adjective)
*1. calm, peaceful
2. happy, golden
3. prosperous, affluent
Example Sentence:
Tara claimed to have found the ideal cure for her stress-related ills: a quiet weekend in the halcyon atmosphere of a beautiful country town.
1. to anticipate and prevent (as a situation) or make unnecessary (as an action)
Example Sentence:
"Regular exercise can obviate problems with weight gain," explained Dr. Ahmed, "and it can help you avoid the need for unpleasant diets and weight-loss programs."
cacography \kak-AH-gruh-fee\ (noun)
1. bad spelling
2. bad handwriting
Example Sentence:
"I always wanted to be a contestant in the National Spelling Bee," said Pat, "but an unfortunate tendency to cacography kept me from qualifying."
1. to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation
2. violate, betray
Example Sentence:
Larry was angered by the scandalous half-truths in the unauthorized biography, and he was hurt that so many of his former friends and colleagues had traduced
him.
obdurate \AHB-duh-rut, AHB-dyuh-rut\ (adjective)
1. a: stubbornly resistent in wrongdoing b: hardened in feelings
*2. resistant to persuasion or softening influence
Example Sentence:
Although Helen tried desperately to persuade Jack to attend their neighbors' dinner party, he remained obdurate in his refusal to go.
sententious \sen-TEN-shuhs or sen-TENT-shuhs\ (adjective)
1. given to or abounding in aphoristic expression: using wise sayings or proverbs *2. containing, using, or inclined to use high-sounding phrases or popous, moralizing language
Example Sentence:
When her date launched into a sententious monologue on "the deplorable decline of values in Western culture," Meg wrote him off as an insufferable bore.
coeval \koh-EE-vuhl\ (adjective)
1. Of the same or equal age, antiquity, or duration
Example Sentence:
Carbon-dating determined that the fossils were approximately coeval with one another.
palimpsest \PAL-imp-SEST\ (noun)
1. A parchment or other writing-material written upon twice, the original writing having been erased or rubbed out to make place for the second; a manuscript in which a later writing is written over an effaced earlier writing.
Example Sentence:
Unfortunately, many of the pages were missing, having been torn out and used as palimpsests.
thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tur-jee\ (noun)
1. the performance of miracles; specifcally : magic
Example sentence:
A masterful sorcerer, Merlin used powerful spells and feats of thaumaturgy to ensure that his protégé Arthur would one day become king of the Britons.
*1. a: to heat and then cool (as steel or glass) usually for softening and making less brittle; also : to cool slowly usually in a furnace b: to heat and then cool (nucleic acid) in order to separate strands and induce combination at lower temperature especially with complementary strands of a different species
2. strengten, toughen
Example Sentence:
The glassmaker shaped the vase with quick, fluid movements and then placed it in the oven to anneal the glass.
neotaric \nee-uh-TARE-ik\ (adjective)
1. recent in origin : modern
Example Sentence:
"I find neoteric fiction dreadful as a rule, so I eschew modern writers and concentrate my reading on the works of the true masters of yesteryear," declared Anthony.
campestral \kam-PESS-trul\ (adjective)
1. of or relating to fields or open country: rural
Example Sentence:
Joseph opted to remain in camptestral seclusion,distracted from his writing only by the birds and the glorious wildflowers that grew right up to his doorstep.
demulcent \dih-MUL-sent\ (adjective)
1. soothing
Example Sentence:
The advertisement declared the new cough syrup to be "a gentle, demulcent medicine guaranteed to relieve sore throat pain in minutes."
sesqiupedalian \SES-kwi-puh-DALE-yun\ (adjective)
1.having many syllables: long
*2 using long words
Example sentence:
While the writer's sesquipedalian style can prove irksome at times, his novels usually have interesting plots and good character development.